Divided shank rail fastener



Feb. 3, 1942. R. P. CLARKSON 2,271,912

DIVIDED SHANK RAIL FASTENER Original Filed June 29, 1955 8b INVENTOR, IFly-8 4. 5 v

Patented Feb. 3, 1942 UNITED S'TTES PATENT OFFICE DIVIDED slijlzl li illL FASTENER Ralph P. Clarkson, New'Rochelle, N. Y.

Original application June 29, 1935, Serial No. 29,052. Divided and thisapplication February 16, 1938, Serial No. 190,793

g 7 Claims.

This invention relates to divided shank rail fasteners, moreparticularly that type or kind of rail fastener in which the rail isresiliently clamped or held to a tieplate or other supporting means orin which the rail is directly clamped to the tie or other cross member,the fastener being anchored in the tie or engaging below the railsupport, as desired.

It is a general object of this invention to pro vide a novel andimprovedbalanced track construction including a rail fastener which is simple indesign, easy to manufacture, low in cost, and efficient in operation;which permits the continued use of the present tieplates; by means ofwhich there is produced a stronger, safer, and more easily andeconomically maintained track structure than those now in general" use;which permits required wave motion in the rail without transmission ofthis motion to the supporting structure; which distributes the load onthe tieplate without tendency to rock the plate and thus, in fact,prolongs the life of wooden ties; and which particularly lends itself tosimple installation in present track structure with ordinary tools andlabor and without special equipment.

More particularly it is an object of the present invention to provide arail fastener by means of which the rail is held to the tieplate orother support by the spring action or resilient effect of a bifurcatedor two part shank fastener which may be readily driven into position andwhich requires no bolts or nuts for fastening or flexing, no specialtools for installation or removal, and which may be employed with thepresent widely used, ordinary rolled tieplates with single or doubleshoulders or without any shoulders at all, and which is adapted to holdthe tieplate to the tie as well as to hold the rail, particularly fromcreeping or longitudinal movement.

Thus any present tieplate may readily permit the application of theprinciples of the present invention. It is apparent that this feature,combined with the low cost of the fastener and ease of installation,facilitates changing over'present track construction to' the more moderncontinuous welded rail construction, as it may be done withoutdiscarding any present track equipment but merely by substitution ofthese fasteners.

A further object of the present invention is to provide a rail fastenerof the type described which is so constructed and positioned that themovement of the rail presents no effective component of force in linewith the withdrawal direction of the fastener and there is substantiallyno maintenance required; such' as continual tightening, and yet thefastener may be removed and replaced when necessary or desirable.

From the standpoint of economy, besides the elimination of ever costlymaintenance, it may be further pointed. out that the constructionprovided by this invention will prevent the rail from creeping and thuspreclude the necessity of the provision of additional rail anchors oranticreepers.

Another important feature: ofthis invention permits the use ofadividedshank spike involving this invention as the ordinary rail spikevis used, leaving. the. rail free with gauge maintained and in additionthe tieplate isclamped in place.

With the foregoing and other objects in view as will be apparent: tothose skilled in the art as the description proceeds, my inventionresides in the combination and arrangement of parts and in the detailsof constructiondescribed in this specification and particularly pointedout in the appended claims, it beingunderstoodthat changes may be madeinthe particular'embodiment of the invention within the scope of what isclaimed without departing from the spirit of the'invention. I intendnolimitation other than those of the claims when fairly interpretedinthelight of the full disclosure and the present state of the art.

Reference is made t'o-my copendingapplication Serial No. 29,052, filedJune 29'; 1935', of which this application is a division and I'also'refer to my copending application Serial No. 65,945, filed February27, 1936.

Referring-now to the accompanying drawing which is furnished forillustrative purposes, it is apparent that various modifications in theembodiment of my invention are possible, of which several are shown byway of" example, including a form at present preferred.

In the drawing,

Fig. 1 is a'fragmentary transverse section illustrating an applicationof my invention to the type of construction with rail mounted on metalcross members, in this case an angle or the like steel shape;

Fig. 2' is a sketch illustrating one form of rail fastener involving myinvention applied in Fig 1'. Figs. 3 and 4 arefragmentary sectionaldetails illustrating the applications of a preferred'form of railfastener involving my invention.

Figs. 5 and Bare planviews of' rail andftiepla'te assembly illustratingthe'applications 'of'. theform of fastener shown in Figs. 3 and 4;

Fig. 7 is aview similar" to Fig; 1 illustrati've'of a modifiedformofrail" fastenerin use;

and 5) by the rail fastener itself (Figs. 3 and 6),

or otherwise as may seem desirable. Normally, in street railwayconstruction, the rail l (Fig. 1) rests directly on a cross member'2which may be any steel shape or metal tie.

While my invention may be utilized in any construction regardless of thetype of tieplateused, I prefer to employ a double shouldered or channeltype of tieplate. I prefer that the-rail seat 9-be cambered to provideline contact transversely between the rail and the rail seat. Thepreferred passage 3 provided for the rail fastener is such as to permitthe use of a rail spike therein, if desired. Preferably the driven leg(8, 8a) is of rail spike width and engages the side walls of the passage3 to prevent twisting. My invention contemplates the provision ofadditional openings 3 (Figs. 5 and 6) in each tieplate to one side ofthe rail seat and spaced from the resilient rail fastener so that a railspike may be used simultaneously with the rail fastener, if desired.

One embodiment of my invention, illustrated in Fig. 1, in fragmentarysection, shows one side of a standard heavy rail construction wherein arail l0 rests on a metal tie 2 and is yieldingly held by one or morebifurcated or divided shank drive fasteners each of which preferably hasa straight,

more or less rigid driven leg 8 and, in this embodiment, a resilientrail leg I integral with the driven leg and engaging the top surface ofa rail flange l3. The lower end of the driven fastener is anchored inposition, the fastener'being preferably tilted away from the rail. Inthe instance shown,-the under side of the tie flange 2 acts as theterminal or looking surface, corresponding to the under surface of atieplate, which permitsthe bent or hooked end 5 of the driven member 8to anchor the fastener.

The form of rail fastener of thebifurcated type illustrated in Fig. 1and in Fig, 2, is a split bar with legs spread apart, engagingrespectively the base flange 13 and the tie flange, the upper ends ofthe two shank members I and 8 being integral to form a driving head atthe upper free end 6.

Such a fastener, however, I prefer to form from a flat plate of springsteel, bent double as in Figs. 7 and 8, preferably rustless, and thefinished fastener is carefully spring tempered. Various modifications-inthe particular form of the fastener are shown in accompanying figures,embodying my invention, as will be described. All, however, comprise atwo part shank including a driven leg and a pressure leg resilientlycoacting, the fastener ineach case being a driven type and provided witha driving head so that the. force applied thereto may be applied in theline of direction of, or the line of divergence of, the driven leg.

I prefer at present, especially where gauge must be maintained by thefastener and a tieplate and wooden tie is used, touse a divided shankdrive fastener of the forms'how'n in Figs. 3, 4, 5,6, which may bedrivenithrough the tieplate opening 3 and anchored in the tie,preferably in canted position (Fig. 3), the drive leg bearing on thetieplate I, holding the latter firmly to the tie while the rail leg Iresiliently engages the upper surface of the base flange [3 of the railso as to yieldingly clamp the rail base to the rail seat of the tieplateand, while permitting wave motion of the rail, such construction acts toresist longitudinal creeping or side motion. The same type of railfastener may be reversed and used (Fig. 4)

for yieldingly holding down the tieplate while leaving the rail free tomove up and down. Fig. 5'illustrates the combined use of four such drivefasteners, two preferably at the longitudinal center of the tieplate Iholding down the tieplate resiliently and maintaining gauge (as in Fig.4) and one rail fastener on each side of rail ID with resilient fingersengaging the rail base at points removed from said center line in themanner of Fig. 3. In the case of cambered plates the center line is inthe line of contact between rail and tieplate.

For a balanced construction it may be preferred and, of course, will becheaper, to use a single rail fastener on each side of the rail W, as inFig. 6, the pressure arm 1 of the fastener acting to resiliently clampthe rail base to a tieplate I, the driven arm 8a preferably wedging intothe tieplate opening 3 (shown in Fig. 3) and the fastener being anchoredbelow the rail H! in the rail supporting tie.

It is apparent that in the construction of Figs. 3 and 4, as Well as inthat of Fig. 1 and other embodiments of my invention illustrated, thedriven member 8, 8a, 8b, of the rail fastener may be canted at an angleto the motion produced in the rail by passing traflic and because of the00- action between the legs as well as the cantilever action of the railengaging member, the driven member is not loosened by the wave motion ofthe rail nor is the tieplate holding means loosened, any upward lift ofthe rail actually tending to force the drive leg more firmly against thetieplate. In other words, in all the constructions shown, the rail mayhave wave motion under traffic conditions and this motion is notimparted to the tieplate which is held firmly to the tie.

In the particular embodiment-shown in Fig. '7, the form of rail fastenerused engaging base flange I 2 and shown clearly in Fig. 8, may beprovided with a raised portion 4 on the driven leg 81) to provide a stopfor the edge of the rail base. This permits the leg 8b to be thinner insection than would otherwise be the case if the opening l4 extends outfrom the rail seat a considerable distance, and thus the raised portioncompensates for the thinness of the leg.

What I claim is:

1. As an article of manufacture for securing a rail to its support, abifurcated spike comprising two resiliently cooperating shank members,said members being'formed by a longitudinally divided shank, one of theshank members being curved laterally away from the other member andforming an elongated, resilient, hold-down member, the shank membersbeing connected at one end.

2. As an article of manufacture, a drive type rail fastener forresiliently clamping a rail to its support provided With a driving headportion at the upper end and a shank divided therebelow to form tworesiliently cooperating, elongated members integral at said head portionand both downwardly extending therefrom, the dividing point of saidshank being above therail' support when said fastener is positioned andone of said shank members overlying said rail.

3. In a railroad track construction, in combination, a rail and asupport therefor including a tie-plate with the usual spike openings anda wooden tie, a one-piece spike extending through one of said spikeopenings and anchored in said tie, the shank of said spike separating ina plane extending longitudinally of the shank into two members, one ofsaid shank members being elongated and extending sidewardly away fromthe other member and resiliently engaging the upper surface of the baseflange of said rail, and the other of said shank members substantiallystraight and engaging said tieplate and pressed thereagainst by anyupward force of said rail on said first mentioned shank member.

4. In a railroad track construction, in combination, a rail, a tieplate,a tie, a resilient rail fastener on each side of said rail anchored insaid tie, the shank of said fastener separating into two membersincluding an elongated pressure leg extending sidewardly away from theother part and resiliently clamping said rail to said tieplate torestrain longitudinal motion of said rail relative to said tieplate, anda portion of said shank wedging into said tieplate opening to preventupward motion of said tieplate.

5. Elastic rail spike for securing railway rails to wood ties,comprising a shank separating in a longitudinal plane through the shankinto two parts, one of said parts being curved sidewardly away from saidother part to form an elongated, resilient gripping arm.

6. As an article of manufacture, a drive type rail fastener forresiliently clamping a rail to its support, said fastener comprising ahead and a pair of members disposed below the head, said members beingintegrally connected at one end, one member being constructed to securethe fastener to a rail support and the other member being curvedlater-ally from the first member and forming an elongated, resilient,hold-down member.

'7. In a railroad track construction, in combination, a rail and asupport therefor including a tie-plate and a wooden tie, a spikeextending through an opening in said tieplate and anchored in saidwooden tie and provided with a two part shank, one member of said shankprojecting sidewardly away from the other member and forming anelongated, resilient member overlying said rail and resiliently clampingsaid rail to said tieplate.

RALPH P. CLARKSON.

